The new warehouse was commissioned back in Q2 2020 as part of a major plan to lift goods capacity at the railway's major stations. Readers of the blog would have noticed an earlier project at Marylebone.
For many years, Birmingham Snow Hill (on BC) has been constrained by a single goods road and, despite the lovely scratch built goods shed, a rather small goods shed for a station of its size. Thankfully, by cascading our buildings, the old Snow Hill goods shed moved to Wrexham General, Wrexham’s shed moved to Nottingham Victoria, Nottingham's shed was shifted to Porthmadog (Portmadoc in 1962) and Porthmadog provided a second goods shed for Aberystwyth!
By constructing a large warehouse and moving the truck bays onto the first floor, it was possible to run two goods tracks through the Birmingham yard. Therefore, the new building not only provided a far more realistic interpretation of the station's northern approaches but enabled greater operational flexibility.
With nearly 100 windows across four levels, two platforms, a double pitched roof and differential rail and road levels, the warehouse was a fairly complicated building to construct. We also encountered a number of challenges along the way, particularly concerning the roof trusses and brickwork at the top of the end walls. Notwithstanding, the new building's size has been a significant boost to the railway's aesthetics.